You're The Cream In My Coffee

[anteros_lmc]

Something for elin_gregory who posted this lovely youtube montage set to You're The Cream In My Coffee, which reminded me that tucked away in the attic I had a copy of that song dating from about the 1930's and a 1935 portable gramophone to play it on. I thought you might like the record album :)

Thorens Excelda portable "cameraphone", so called because it was designed to look like camera. No I have no idea why either...	Thorens, made in Switzerland.
Sadly it doesn't contain a single sea chantey	You're The Cream In My Coffee

And here it is! Apologies for the crappy vid, but you get the idea :)

This came from my mother who was given it as a prop for an amateur dramatics club she ran when I was a kid. Years later when I was a very skint student she gave it to me to sell to tide me over a particularly sticky patch. However I couldn't bear to part with it so I kept it and just made do instead!

Comments

[esmerelda-t.livejournal.com]

I am very impressed you have a gramophone, classy!

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Isn't it cute? I'm very glad I didn't flog it. It's not actually worth that much anyway. They sell at auction for about a hundred quid and the records, which I love, are apparently worthless!

[elin-gregory.livejournal.com]

Squeeee!! What a lovely set of photos! AND an opportunity to hear the recording. Thank you so much! What a lovely thing to have stored away in your attic!

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Hehe! Glad you liked it. Sorry the video's a bit crappy. I'm amazed that it still plays as I don't think the mechanism hasn't been cleaned or oiled since my mother was given it about fifty years ago! I only have half a dozen records for it but they include the unforgettable Riding on a Camel in the Desert and Maggie's Cold :)

[azdak.livejournal.com]

Oh, so that's what portable grammophones looked like! I've always wondered because of that scene in Gaudy Night when Peter and Harriet go punting and the river is polluted by the sound of hordes of punters playing "Love in Bloom" on portable grammophones (talk about Plus ca change...). I'd always envisaged monstrous great things about the size of a normal grammophone and wondered how they managed to lug them to the punt (especially since they were presuambly also burdened by picnic hampers and botte of wine), but a little thing like this would be easy to carry.You've cleared up a mystery for me.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Now you know! This thing would be ideal for punting picnics. It's small enough to carry easily but heavy enough to be stable wherever you put it down. The metal case has a little leather handle on the top and it also comes with its own brown canvas carry case with a leather shoulder strap. Glad to have solved a mystery for you!

[charliecochrane.livejournal.com]

I used to have a Dansette - nothing so pretty.

what a wonderful machine!

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Isn't it nice? I can almost imagine Jonty and Orlando taking something like this on picnics :)

We had a Dansette too. My mother was a PE teacher and she had a collection of BBC sound effects records (remember those?) that she used for "music and movement" classes with the little ones. One of the records had the sound of seagulls on it and my sister and I used to play it on the Dansette to torment the cat who would go crazy trying to get into the the box to catch the birds! Wicked children :}

[charliecochrane.livejournal.com]

They have a pianola, I think, so a portable record player would be just the sort of thing they'd upgrade to.

I remember those records. I daresay you've heard the great Joyce Grenfell sketches about the teacher doing things like movement to music with her class?

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

a portable record player would be just the sort of thing they'd upgrade to.
And I can just imagine Jonty singing this to Orlando to annoy him ;)

I remember those records.
Weren't they fabulous?!

the great Joyce Grenfell sketches about the teacher doing things like movement to music with her class?
Joyce Grenfell was a genius. And here she is: Flower Children

[charliecochrane.livejournal.com]

*bliss*